Battle of Nanking (2397)
The Battle of Nanking was the first major confrontation of the Third War of Barnard's Star and a major disaster for the United Commonwealth. Intended as a decapitation strike by the Royal Space Navy, the battle was a catastrophe which resulted in the loss of the bulk of the RSN's major fleet units. The only positive result of the battle was the disruption of a planned CEGD invasion of Shangri-La. The destruction of the bulk of the Empire's troop transport ships prevented any planetary assaults by the CEGD during the war. Build Up Write the first section of your article here. Opposing Forces The RSN commited the bulk of its capital units to the attack on Nanking, including three of its four Illustrious class fleet carriers and eleven Glamorgan class cruisers along with twenty eight destroyers and frigates. Because Military Intelligence had claimed that Nanking was only protected by two reserve squadrons of aerospace defence fighters two of the carriers, Illustrious and Indefatigable, had offloaded their Squall fighters and replaced them with additional Shrike strike craft. This left the task force with only a single squadron of space-superiority fighters to deal with hostile strike craft. In preparation for it's deployment to Shangri-La the Imperial fleet had gathered together three entire fleets, the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th. The 2nd Fleet was composed of three Tian Shang Long class battleships, two Xi'an class carriers and eight Wuxia-class cruisers, whilst the 3rd and 5th Fleets each had eight Han-class destroyers and twelve Yan-class frigates. Between them the battleships and carriers possessed forty four fighters, mostly the old but reliable J-201 (anauthorised copy of the MiG-223) but the battleship Jin Se Long was operating a flight of six J-208b strike fighters. The planetary garrison had been reinforced with three more squadrons of J-201s bringing its total to five. The invasion fleet itself consisted of eighteen heavy lift troopships (converted merchant vessels) plus nine cargo ships. As well as the warships the Imperial fleet had also moved the bulk of its replenishment fleet to Nanking to provide underway re-supply for the shorter ranged escorts. Deployment and Opening Moves The bulk of the RSN forces jumped into the system in the classic "Hammer" deployment with a screen of four cruisers at the front, the carriers and their close escort "guard dogs" in the centre, with the remaining escorts covering the flanks and rear. One squadron of three cruisers, HM Ships Aukland,Norfolk and Quebec, under the command of Captain West, would approach Nanking from another angle with the intention of striking at the shipyards in orbit of the planets small moon. The Imperial Fleet was deployed at anchor in high orbit, primarily to avoid collisions with the numerous shuttles and barges carrying the invasion force up from the surface. Those ships which had finished loading (eight in total at that point) had moved up into orbit of the moon, protected by four frigates. As soon as the Commonwealth fleet entered the inner system region they were detected by Imperial CAP fighters as well as long range sensor sweeps from the fleet. The Imperials immediately began moving to intercept the Commonwealth fleet. The first shots of the battle (indeed the entire war) were fired by the Commonwealth cruisers Newfoundland and Yorkshire, their Goliath super-luminal cannons vaporising a Han and a Yan. Admiral Anderson quickly realised his forces were outnumbered but knew that to attempt to retreat would both take time and leave them vunerable to flanking attacks from Imperial fighters. He could see no alternative but to press on. The Imperial response to the cruiser fire was a salvo of sixty four anti-shipping missiles from their battleships and cruisers. The carrier Invincible and two cruisers, Alberta and Yorkshire, were destroyed when their defensive systems were overwhelmed. The Newfoundland and three frigates were damaged. The remaining Commonwealth carriers, Illustrious and Indefatigable, launched their fighters but the fleet now had no dedicated space superiority fighters. All of the fleets Squalls had been destroyed on the Illustrious. The Cruisers Strike Even as the bulk of the Commonwealth fleet faced destruction the three cruisers under Captain West were moving around Nanking's moon. West and his command staff were suprised to see not only a shipyard but also no fewer than a dozen ships waiting in orbit. Immediately West ordered his squadron to commence firing, with the first salvos been targeted against the four frigates. Caught by suprise the frigates were obliterated whilst looking the other way. Minutes later the eight troopships had been reduced to clouds of super heated wreckage. West then moved his force towards Nanking itself where they were able to pick off the undefended ships in orbit with ease. In the space of twenty minutes the three Commonwealth ships had destroyed not only all of the invasion fleets transports but the bulk of its heavy lift shuttles as well as four frigates and a number of satellites. The total number of Imperial troops killed in space numbered in excess of twenty thousand including the entire headquarters for the Imperial III Corps. West's cruisers also fired a number of rounds down onto the surface on Nanking, badly damaging the colony's main space port and destroying a large munitions dump. His primary mission completed West ordered his group to move out and engage the Imperial fleet from behind. An Imperial frigate squadron had been detached to deal with the group and these were engaged as soon as they came into range, all four been destroyed. Closing on the Imperial forces West decided to focus all of his firepower on the three battleships in the centre of the Imperial formation. Eighteen rounds were fired at long range, the bulk been intercepted by Imperial point defence systems. Two rounds hit the Jin Se Long damaging it's flight bays and aft laser turrets, whilst a Han class cruiser was struck amidships and broken in half. The three cruisers then plunged through the Imperial lines, their opponents having no options but to either take evasive action of be rammed. The Norfolk was bracketed by a battleship and a cruiser and destroyed but the other two ships were able to escape with only moderate damage. The Quebec was hit by a fighter launched missile and Captain West struck by flying shrapnel, the ships chief medical officer was forced to place West in cryo-stasis and command of the surviving cruisers passed to Captain Amanda Jenson on the Aukland. Thanks to the actions of the cruisers the Imperal fleet had become disorganised and the surviving Commonwealth units were able to disengage and withdraw. Aftermath United Commonwealth The Battle of Nanking was a harsh defeat for the Commonwealth. Three carriers and seven cruisers were lost with all hands along with eighteen other warships and all of the deployed fighters. Only the news that the invasion fleet had been destroyed prevented the complete collapse of morale within the Commonwealth. A number of politicians, mostly from the centre left parties, called on the government to withdraw from the alliance with the USA and sue for peace. A media campaign, led by the populist London & Sydney Tribune, denounced these politicians as cowards and even traitors and called upon the people to support the military. With the bulk of its capital ships either lost or badly damaged, the RSN was forced to go on the defensive for the next year and a half until a rearmament programme could be put in place. A high level investigation after the war showed that the various departments involved involved in the planning of the atack repeatedly failed to pass vital information between each other. More often than not Intelligence chiefs were more concerned with "empire building" than with prosecuting a conflict. A number of senior officers were dismissed from their posts following the publication of this report and five individuals were charged with criminal neglect. Celestial Empire of the Golden Dragon Although the Empire publically declared the Battle a victory for their forces behind closed doors its leaders were forced to admit that they had suffered badly in the fighting. Although none of their capital ships had been damaged beyond repair they had lost a number of escort ships and fighters. More importantly the fleet had lost most of its resupply ships, as a result the Imperial fleet was now limited in the number of long range missions it could mount. To counter these losses the Admiralty ordered the conversion of a number of merchant vessels into ad-hoc support ships causing serious disruption to commercial shipping throughout Imperial Space. The Imperial Army had also suffered numerous losses, including an entire Corps command and two divisions worth of its best troops. Nearly a third of the Army's assault shuttles had been destroyed either in space or on the ground and an estimated five thousand tons of supplies had been lost. Without the troopships the Army was no longer able to stage a planetary assault. Category:3rd War of Barnard's Star Category:Battles